What a lot of people don't realize when they build up a hot new gaming rig is that the entire user experience comes from peripherals. They'll sometimes spend more than $500 USD on a single graphics card (can you believe 8800 Ultra cards still sell for $520?), expecting their old budget computer monitor to keep up. While you will get higher image quality at higher frame rates with good hardware, a bad display will still ghost and give you a poor picture. Let's be honest, how much can you really expect from a 30+ ms response time?

Shopping for a monitor isn't exactly straightforward, though. As if picking a size weren't hard enough, you also have to balance your standards for specifications versus price. That's too much work for a lot of people, especially after they just spent a month researching the best hardware to buy, and they stick with the well-known names like Samsung and Viewsonic.

Today, we're going to look at a Hanns-G unit, the Hi221D 22” widescreen monitor. Though Hanns-G isn't one of those companies that come right to mind when you think of a fancy monitor, we've sure heard of them before. Hanns-G is a company that prides itself on style and quality, but its displays come at budget prices. Can the Hi221D provide name-brand looks at a discount? Continue as we find out…